The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
The Internet provides broad access to a wide range of information, ideas, and content. However, not all content on the Internet can be reached from all access points. For example, a nation may regulate or restrict the content available to Internet users based in the nation. Also, an Internet server may restrict what content is available to an Internet user based on the Internet user's Internet protocol address (IP address). In the event that an Internet user successfully breaches restricted access to various Internet content, some authorities are interested in tracking such users and assessing civil, criminal, or martial penalties on them. There is a problem of unrestricted, untraceable access to all content available on the Internet.
Many have tried to solve this problem. Services such as uProxy are available for Internet users to route their Internet traffic through a trusted source (e.g., computer of friend, relative, etc) that is configured to evade Internet restrictions while preserving IP address anonymity. However, such methods and systems require the user seeking anonymous and unrestricted access to know and trust the source because all traffic routed through the source may be monitored by the source provider. This leaves users vulnerable to the discretion of their source. Further, the speed of access through the source may fluctuate based on the number of users using the source. Such solutions sacrifice speed, anonymity, and may not provide completely unrestricted access.
It is also known to use virtual private networks (VPN) to route encrypted Internet traffic between a user and a server. Such systems and methods allow a user to access content that is not available to the user's computer but is available to the VPN's server computer. Further, such systems hide the IP address of the user's local computer from observers outside of the VPN. It is also known to chain multiple VPN servers together. However, while chaining VPN servers increases security and anonymity, it greatly reduces the download and upload speeds for a user. This is a compounded problem for user computers with low speed Internet access.
Thus, there remains a need for a system and method that provides unrestricted Internet access to users while hiding their local IP address from unwanted observers, all while improving the apparent speed of Internet traffic from the user's perspective.